Monday, April 28, 2008

Yeast, worms and people may age together?

All organisms experience aging, however, there were a study published recently provides pathways and evolutionary conservation of the genes regarding aging since experimental evidence strongly suggests that aging is modulated by genetic factors.

Researchers conducted a genome-wide analysis of the yeast and nematode, to identify genes that may related to aging in humans and therefore, explained that Nematodes and humans have a similar evolutionary scale and by doing comparing a particular gene modulates aging in both yeast and nematodes. The compiled a set of genes that were known to modulate aging and scanned the yeast's genes with highly similar sequences which then individually analyzed for a potential role in longevity by measuring the life span of yeast cells lacking each gene.

In a result, 15 out of 25 yeast genes are highly similar to human genes and this work is readily applicable to human aging research. More importantly, they reckon that there is a significant overlap between nematode and yeast aging genes especially those in nutrient-response pathways. At the end, it gives a basic knowledge and evidence for larger reserch on determining how each of these genes modulate aging at the moleculr lever, and to examine whether modulates aging in a mammalian model. So, to be a useful therapeutic target fir treating age-associated diseases.Wai Ning (Wilson) Ng41597240Reference:http://hum-molgen.org/NewsGen/03-2008/000015.html